War Story: Bumi
by skak45
Summary: This is the story of a younger Bumi, trying to prove himself by joining the army. Little does he know of the friendship, loss and violence of the world he stepped into.
1. Chapter 1

This story is based extremely loosely off of real events. Appreciation and respect to all armed forces.

Many people will tell you, the closest place to Hell on earth is Boiling Rock prison. However, those people have probably never been to the Xi Yin region. A stout 3447 square kilometer region in the mountains west of the Ba Sing Se, it's not a very popular. In the eastern part of the region, you have miles of dessert, in the west you have soaring mountains. In either area the temperatures are not inviting with 49 °C (120.2 °F) highs. Then there are the people of the region. You see the people

of this region were all put into the area due to post Fire Nation war treaties,

disregarding ethnicities and cultures in the process. This of course, created a tense situation causing the region to be marked by lawlessness, chaos and just a crappy place to be in general. When some of these tribes decided to band together and started to attack villages, plunder caravans and decapitate local authorities, the newly formed Republic City Armed forces decided to intervene.

Operation Rock Breaker

Boarder of the Xi Yin region.

0300

Wiping the sand from his jacket SPC Bumi looked up at the sky. Bouncing around in the back of a truck with 9 other men, in the middle of the desert there wasn't really much else to do. Besides, without the any light for miles the stars looked quite amazing. The moon was also full, casting it's pale light over the sand dunes. He had to smile when he saw it, Uncle Sokka's ex-girlfriend, the moon. Fact was stranger than fiction. His thoughts were interrupted as his vehicle ground to a halt. The heavy radio he had on his back crackled with static indicating the channels had been opened. As per instructions, he hit a switch on the hand set, allowing all the men in the vehicle to hear the broadcast. " To all men of the RAF, this is Commander Navaro. We are now at the boarder of friendly territory. From here on out is Indian country. Keep your head on tight and remember we are here as peace keepers, not war fighters. Good luck and may the spirits watch over us. Commander out." Those words as political and robotic as they sounded made Bumi feel just a little bit better. They were just here to insure stability not fight a war.

"All right boys, while we are a peacekeeping force we are expecting resistance from the warlords initially. All weapons condition one" shouted the Sargent. The truck roared back into gear, Bumi racked his carbines action and checked his radio one last time.

"Make sure that thing works" one of the men said to him, " if things get hairy, we're going to need all the artillery we can get."

Nodding, he looked out at the column of dust from the other vehicles. Twenty of them, roaring across the desert. "I hope i make you proud dad"

" I don't see what the big deal is" said Bumi, dismounting from the back of the vehicle. "We've been going for what? 10 hours and three towns? No resistance and no trouble"

"Yer right Bumi" agreed Romba. A northern water tribesmen, he had enlisted about the same time as Bumi and was known as the company funny man. However, he was a crack medic, using his water bending and non-bending trauma treatment skills. " and have you seen the ladies? Hotties" he said, putting on his sunglasses and whistling at some passing girls.

"Lt.'s meeting with the town elders, try keeping it in your pants until after the missions over." he replied.

"No promises"

Chuckling, he turn back to the town around them. Him and the other nine men formed a circle around the truck in the town square, all relaxed with weapons slung over shoulders or necks. One of the men, his name was Quinn or something, mumbled to him " Somethings up here"

"what makes you think that?" he asked quizzically.

" I used to be a cop. Whenever something was about to go down the vibe changes. Take a look around"

Looking around, Bumi didn't see anything. He was puzzled at first then he realized, that was it, nothing.

Unlike the other villages which had people running to greet them or try and sell them something there was not a person in sight. No dogs darking, and all the windows were closed.

" Crap, you're right. I'm gonna go alert the"

"Look out" yelled Romba. Turning, Bumi saw a stream of fire barreling at their truck. It was only thanks to the warning that Bumi was able to dive away with his heavy radio pack.

"Ambush" someone screamed as a fierce battle broke out. It seemed that from every window there was fire, rocks and small arms fire began pouring into the town street. pulling out his carbine and firing back, Bumi tried to crawl out of the open but found that his radio was weighing him down. As he was kicking around trying to push himself up, he felt water wrap around his waist and pulled him behind a food stand.

" I got you" yelled Romba as he sent of shards of water to into the windows and streets. Pulling himself to his feet and returning fire whenever he spotted an attacker. " We need to get off the street" he shouted. Fire benders behind him nodded and blasted open the door of a nearby house. Not wasting any time, the whole squad rushed into the building, Romba dragging a wounded man with him. As the men took up positions near the windows, Bumi found a table in a dinning room. Sweeping the dishes and vases off of it with a crash, he dropped his radio on it and opened up a channel. " This is SPC. Bumi of Echo company. We are under heavy fire from an unknown number of enemies. Can anyone assist?"

" This is Charlie Company, we are unable to assist, we have taken heavy casualties and have withdrawn. However, we have gotten in contact with Company HQ. They are sending a gun-blimp for support, ETA 5 minutes."

"Roger that Charlie, any word from other companies?"

"Negative, Alpha dropped off the radio after reporting they were being overrun. Bravo never said anything. Good Luck guys"

"Thanks Charlie" he said. " Air-support in 5 mikes. How we doing?"

" We lost Takeru and Sanka, and Rima is wounded" said Romba. That left Romba as the highest ranking officer in the squad right now.

"We got hostiles circling the building."

"Non-bender ammo is good but it wont last forever"

Checking his own ammo count he realized that his carbine had locked open during the last skirmish. He had fired over 30 rounds and hadn't even thought to reload. "why isn't my training kicking in?" he said, as he reloaded in frustration.

"Bumi, calm down i need you to listen" ordered Romba. "I'm taking two guys and going back for the commander. When the blimp gets here, use it to clear you guys a path out of the city. We'll be right behind you." He gave him a pat on his back as he made his way to the front room.

"Roger that" Bumi said taking a deep breath.

"Jin, Lee, on me" he hollered "2-2 Hooah!"

12 hours later

FOB VICTUS

Tattered, dusty and bloody Bumi had had enough, less than two days in country, his uniform was shredded. He looked at his rifle, it had fired over 200 rounds and he couldn't even remember how many enemies he shot. The west side of the town had been leveled by artillery form the gun-blimp, leaving nothing but ruins and blasted out houses. His goggle were broken, his helmet was dented. After all this, all he could do was lie against a crate near the edge of the FOB, heck that was all he wanted to do. Why? because in front of him stood a helmet on a water tribe long knife with a water bladder hung from the hand guard. Lined up next to it was a dozen others, some with rocks, some with rifles, but only this one read " Romba Arnok".


	2. Chapter 2

2 months later

", listen up. In two minutes we are hitting the city of La Shin. It is a densely populated, enemy controlled center of about population (326,471). We are hitting this city hard. Artillery has already has been hammering at it for 4 hours. However, we are expecting intense fighting from fanatical local fighters."

Lit only buy a dim read light in the back of the APC, Bumi gripped his carbine tighter as he listened to the Lt. Two fracking months of hell and the "conflict" as the politicians liked to call it was no where near ending.

"Sir, please confirm the RoE's" one soldier said.

" If you see a weapon, you are clear to engage." He said.

So much for a peacekeeping operation thought Bumi. He turned when he felt a pay on his arm. Quinn was scrunched up next to him. "You're gonna do good kid." He said popping a gum in his mouth. " Your one of the best CAC we got" the klaxon rang alerting that they had 60 seconds left. The small compartment was filed with the rattle of rifle actions and safeties. " let's make it hot" he shouted. Just one more day, one more day to survive.

The battle that followed was the fiercest any of the republic soldiers had ever seen. The streets were alive with the constant sound of war. You couldn't move 10 meters down the dusty streets without finding piles of brass, or worst some nut job popping out of a window and trying to kill you. While Bumi had been expecting to be well defended in a semi- second line role, he found himself thrust into the brutal world of urban combat. The RAF was fighting for every inch on the town. They had literally been fighting block by block. The houses were so cramped that now everyone was holding a knife in their non- dominant hand. the fighting had literally come down to who could eviscerate the opponent in the fastest manner. Heck, sometimes they would just frag the whole building.

"Everyone good?" His Lt asked as they moved into a empty house. " I'm good" he said. Looking at his watch he saw it had been almost 4 hours of fighting. Despite that they had only managed to advance less than 1/3rd of the way into the city. Suddenly, the calm was broken as a boulder came crashing through the house walls. "Ambush" was all the Lt. could yell before the rock flattened him against the wall. Diving behind a cabinet, Bumi peaked about the corner. The street was filled with hostiles, all attacking wildly as they tried to swarm the house. " Bumi, you have command" yelled Quinn as he blindly shot fire down the street. "We need orders."

Taking a clam breath, the new Lt. forced his fear out of his mind. Taking in the battle from an imagined birds eye view, he knew he had less than a minute to get out of this building. Going back out the front was suicide but there were no other doors. Then I'll make one, he thought. "Sapper, set a sactchle charge, delayed fuse 60 seconds." He said firing out from the windows as moved towards the back wall. "Quinn, help me smash this wall in" he shouted, kicking at the adobe structure. Grabbing a chair, Quinn helped Bumi quickly smash a medium whole in the wall. " charges set sir" reported the Sapper. " good job, everyone out through the back wall " he ordered. Leaving last, his squad regrouped outside and quickly tossed a red smoke grenade in the back of the house. Moving though the empty streets and alley, they ran into a friendly amour unit only 30 seconds later.

" what was the charge for ?" Asked the Sapper as the squad piled onto the tanks for a ride to a resupply point.

" 3... 2... 1" a large blast sounded in the distance as he house crumbled in a ball of fire. Along with the deafening shockwave a red column of smoke began to rise into the air. "it's payback, part one" he calmly replied. " this is part two" checking his notes, he picked up his radios handset and dial in the frequency. "Condor 1-3, this is Hammer 2-2. Confirm that you are in visual range of sector D-7."

" This is Condor," replied the gunblimp operator. " we are in visual. Do you have a target?"

"Affirmative, identify red smoke as marker. Requesting, carpet bombardment of street and aligned structures due east of the smoke" he said.

"Copy, confirming IFF's and engaging"

" Hammer out"said Bumi. Looking it the sky, he saw the the howitzer flashes through the clouds. What followed was a magestic sight. The clouds burst open with holes as the shells came falling, like fire from heaven. Like he fires of Sodom and Gomora, the rounds hit the ground with a thunderous, crash, creating clouds of smoke and dust. Even though the were a good 800m away, Bumi and squad could still feel the shock through the ground.

Riding into the base on the top of the tank he thought,' I made it, one more day down'

_Several hours later in a near by black site_

" He's young, but he has a good deal of combat experience. Plus he seems to have a knack for radio and artillery." Said one man.

"I guess it's settled than" replied the other."we recruit him as soon as the town is secured. Then we begin Rockfall."

Plopping off the tanks hull, Bumi banged the hatch to thank the commander. Passing the red line he unloaded his carbine and slung it over his back. The FOB was abuzz with activity. The battle was far from over as APCs with fresh troops roared out the gates and artillery troops ran to the howitzers with fresh rounds. Pushing past the crowd, he made his way to the dinning area. Just a small clearing of MRE crates with a firepit in the middle, it was the most that the troops could build in the chain fenced based. Grabbing a package from a crate, Bumi sliced the package open, dropped cross legged on the dirt and started to wolf down the contents. The rice stew was cold and bland, but Bumi was just too tired to heat it up. As he pulled the hot sauce packet from the package and doused he meal with it, a pair of legs blocked his view. Looking up, he managed to crack a tired, surprised smile. "Uncle, what the heck are you doing here?"

"Bumi, dang, you look like crap" said Sokka, sitting down next to him.


	3. Chapter 3

Hi guys. It seems some of you were having trouble with the Millitary jargon so I decided to list a few that come out.

Enjoy

SPC- specialist. Bumi's rank.

CAC- combat air controller. A person who's job is to call in and coordinate airstrikes. (I made a booboo, the actual millitary term is JTAC.)

APC- An armoured personnel carrier

APC) is type of armoured fighting vehicle designed to transport infantry to the battlefield. (From Wikipedia)

If there are any other terms you don't understand, leave a review and I'll add it next chapter.

" Looks don't count for jack here, uncle" said Bumi.

"Spoken like a true grunt." Replied, Sokka sitting down next to him. " How you holding up?"

" can't really say," he replied, setting his helmet on the ground. " some days, we roll through town and people throw flowers and confetti. The next day they throw fire and bombs. I can't tell what I'm really here to do, make peace or fight a war."

" Your damn right, about that last part. Your dad's been fighting tooth and nail to get the RAF to leave the situation to him. He was going to be here with me, but they dragged him into some meeting." Replied Sokka.

Just like dad, thought Bumi. Always to busy, unless of course it was about Tenzin. " what do you think uncle? You went through a war, heck you did most of it with 5 people."

Sokka shook his head as he replied

" My war was a different one. The enemy was in the open. No rules but the ones we put on ourselves. However, I think this one thing might help you. Whenever we fought. It wasn't the mission or the cause we were thinking about" talking out his boomerang, he seemed to breathe in the memories of the old days. " it was about the brothers and sisters on out left and on our right."

That was some food for thought. The nephew was about to reply when another figure walked up next to him.

"SPC Bumi. Please come with me." Said the stranger. Looking up, he realized the the soldier who had called him was a bit different. His clothes while, a light brown, had no camouflage pattern. His facial hair was growing wild and his hair was unkept. Unlike his webbing gear which was dark brown, this fellow's was completely black.

"Yes, sir. Give me a second to grab my gear. " he replied. As he picked up his rifle and helmet, Sokka stopped him for one last thing.

" before you go take this" he said, taking a knife with a familiar black blade form a bag.

"Uncle, is this...?" Asked Bumi in awe of what he was seeing.

" you bet, took me a while to find it. Figured it be more useful as a knife then a sword, so had it chopped down to 10 inches. "

"Thanks uncle." He replied, pulling him into a man hug. " I promise to make you, mom and dad proud."

" you already have boy." Said Sokka as he watched his nephew walk away.

"Touching"said the mysterious soldier as he led Bumi to a jeep and motioned to get inside. Eyeing the man with suspicion, he sat in the passenger seat as the man drove them to the fat side of the base.

" I know you must have a bunch of questions" said the man as he drove through the winding corridors of the FOB. " but I'm only at liberty to tell you this much. Some of my superiors want to talk to you. You seem to already realize I'm not conventional forces, but that's really all I can say."

Well, that informative, Bumi though as the drive pulled up to a trio of warehouses. There was a fire pit in the front surrounded by a group of men looking similar to the one who had drove him there. " follow me" said the man" don't worry about those, guys they don't bite." Leading him to the middle building he let him through a door into a dimly, empty lit hanger, to an office space in the back. "CO's right through there" he said, opening the door.

Stepping through, Bumi had expected to see a clean shaven officer with a nice mahogany desks stacked with files. Instead, he saw a bearded, dirty soldier, with a desk of ply wood littered with maps and various gear.

"Sorry it's a bit of a mess here" said the officer in a grizzled voice. " Lt. Chang" he said extending his hand. This was unexpected as usually he was required to salute the officers he met. He hesitantly shook the hand.

" Have a seat" Chang said, pointing to crate next to the desk. " I guess I need to explain who we are first of all. You probably never heard of us, our organization has been kept quite secret for good reason. We are called Grey Cell. We specialize in unconventional warfare. All of the good stuff from infiltration to sabotage to direct action.

We want to offer you a position with us. We need a JTAC and we think you are the man for the job. You show excellent radio skills, critical thinking and initiative."

" wait, so you guys are a commando group?" Asked Bumi. Those guys were tough as nails guys who were known to get high risk raid missions. Being part of that would be a great honor and opportunity.

"No, not exactly," replied the Lt. to Bumi's surprise. I think with would be easier if I just showed you the whole process. Then you can decide whether you want to join us" he stood and motioned for him to follow.

" Grey was originally conceived by Firelord Zuko. Predicting that the wars to follow would be unconventional he made it his business to create a organization that could fight those battles free of politics and all that bull.

We are a mostly self contained unit. We do everything. This is what I'm about to show you." He said, leading out to the farthest hanger.

" we have been in for two weeks leading up to the invasion. Gathering intel, and preparing for the main force." So that's where we've been getting our intel from, he though following Chang through the doors. The inside of the warehouse looked like a prison, with small cells occupying most of the space.

" 7 days before the invasion, we raided an insurgent safe house, and dragged this fracker back." Said Chang, sliding open a view port on one of the cell doors. Peering inside, he saw a kcal dressed in inmate clothes, sitting in a fetal position against the wall.

" I know what you're thinking" said Chang closing the view port. " this frack doesnt deserve your pity. When we busted down the door, he pulled his own daughter in front of him to try and shield himself. Cowards."

Walking out of the warehouse he continued " through interrogation, we found that the insurgents had a fall back house for their leaders to lie low in, in case the city ever fell." Leading Bumi to the last building, the Lt. Opened the door to reveal a house, inside the warehouse. " this is an exact replica of the house." We have been watching for days gathering intel. We know exactly how many people are inside and what each and everyone's job is. Any questions so far?"

Despite having just revived quite a bit of knowledge, the Grey Cell's operation seemed quite simple. " No sir, but I am curious who is going to be getting this info."

Chang let out a chuckle before relying

" we do everything in house here. Of courses we send a report to the council, but otherwise we are almost completely independent."

Leading him back to the court yard, he was ushered into a non-descript van. He nervously eyed his fellow passengers. Four fully kitted out soldiers, black blancavas hiding there faces. " uh, Lt. Where are we going" he asked nervously.

" I said we were going to show you our whole operation." He said with a smirk, slinging a submachine gun I've his shoulder. " we're headed outside the wire."


End file.
